Kerr Lake - hr from RTP, Great lake but the houses are waaaay off the water and only floating docks. HUGE lake
Lake Gaston - 1.5 from RTP, bit choppy on the weekends, but great during the week.....fixed docks with homes close to the lake.
Hyco Lake - 45- hr from RTP, same as Gaston, only smaller
Mayo - 45- hr from RTP, same as Kerr except for NO DOCKS, unless you build one on a pontoon.

That's the closest ones.......for day trips you have Falls Lake and Jordan Lake. These 2 are far from "good lakes" on the weekends....."Wallys" galore on the weekends!!!!

If you have any more questions feel free to ask....lived here all my life.

no houses on harris though. There are a ton of good lakes in the area but none immediately that you can live right on. Its a bummer but you can snag a place a mile from a ramp and you just kind of have to deal. Hyco is prob the best option if you were commuting to RTP and had to live on the lake since you aren't really touching 40.

And the falls lake wally comment hurts...........but is true. Its a great lake to be on until noon lol. To me Falls is the best option for RTP though. If you live in north raleigh you are 5 min to the lake and 15min to the park.

Didn't mean that directed at anyone on here....just referring to the normal Noon to 4 or 5 PM crowd that is out there on their runabouts, jet skis, and pontoons.

Believe me, I know plenty of folks that I have met, ridden with and hung out with at Falls that are nothing but far from a Wally. It was directed more towards the YAHOOS you see at Barton's Creek clogging up the docks, dragging their outdrives up the ramp and learning how to load/unload a boat on a Saturday.

Falls used to be my main choice any day of the week or weekend when my kid was small just because it was convenient.

I was just messing with ya man. Everywhere in NC is full of wallys though. And I use bartons weekly and fully understand. Its a disaster area around lunch and at 5. Im never in the water later than 10am unless someone died or was mamed